Is there enough federal regulation of meat and poultry plants to ensure food safety?
USDA’s Food Safety Inspection Service (FSIS) is responsible for inspecting all raw meat and poultry sold in interstate and foreign commerce. FSIS oversight includes carcass by carcass inspection, sanitation verification procedures and inspection of imported products. FSIS currently employs 2,876 food inspectors, 1,862 consumer safety officers, 1,801 compliance officers, 1,382 food technologists and 701 veterinary medical officers among its overall staff. Altogether the agency employs 9,397 people—an increase of 2.5 percent since 2003—to complete its mission of inspecting the approximately 6,200 federally inspected establishments in the U.S. And this number only reflects full-time employees; it does not include part-time or intermittent employees. Agency funding has increased in recent years, as well. FSIS’ FY 2009 budget was $959 million, up from $937 million in FY 2008 and $898 million in FY 2007. All totaled, FSIS has enough people and resources to meet its mission of inspecting ever
